(I have wondered on this poem, considering how sweet it is and how much like an icon of Mary, or a painting of Christ being brought down from the Cross. Sweet it is, and I hope the sweetness of it is something you as reader will find a strength.)

To delight in the Paradise
of Easter; it is the Lord's.
The Christ!
Alleluia!

Oh, speak in the night, a conversation
of the spirit, a complaint, a plea.
It is the Lord's will, a renewal
For humankind. Celebrate in the fullness
of living.

Do so in the Church at prayer,
Meditating on the day, ones failings,
Surprisesopening to God.
So one speaks, listens, waits
And lives in the knowledge of Easter,
Its seasonal presence. This divine gift.

So may we rest in thee, in aloneness.
We rest in thee, together our love in emotion and soul
binds us joyfully -- thank you
for the morrow in the bringing
of the quickening spirit, a
millennium of blessings in color,
in shadow, in light, early morning.

Peter Menkin, an aspiring poet, lives in Mill Valley, CA USA where he writes poetry. He is an Oblate of Immaculate Heart Hermitage, Big Sur, CA and that means he is a Camaldoli Benedictine. He is 64 years of age as of 2010.